Businesses are not citizens

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“In an effort to encourage centralization of all online government services, including those using XML, the White House created the E-government initiative, which divides government technology into three roles: Government-to-Government (G2G), Government-to-Business (G2B), and Government-to-Citizen (G2C).”

I read this recently in the following article about the surprising adaptation of the U.S. Government to XML. I was really struck by the notice that a government would act differently towards businesses, than towards citizens. On the surface, this may not seem so strange. We know that there are different taxation rules for companies as well as citizens, but do we ever wonder why. What is the real difference there? Corporations are afforded the rights of citizens, but what rights of businesses are we afforded as citizens? Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to form a business. It’s a gathering together of resources in order to guarantee the livelihood of several people. But at some point, business has become about other people’s money. It is now possible to be part of a business, that you are otherwise not part of.